Book ’em Danno!

Last Friday I got to do something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. After bugging Vinnie for over a year, he finally relented and took me along with him for a night on the town. In case you didn’t know, the Honolulu Police Department has a ride-along program where you get to see what the police officers do. Apparently it’s a popular program because they had a whole sheet of rules and waivers that I had to sign.

A copy of the rules

Unfortunately according to rule 5, I was unable to record any part of my night with a video camera or a still camera. It really was too bad since I did bring both a video camera and a still camera. They basically just weighted down my pants and added some extra bulge to my pockets. It’s a good thing we didn’t have to chase down any perps on foot because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep up with all that extra weight.

The infamous rule 5

I’m not really sure what I can or cannot write about so if you want details about the night email me or call me and I’ll try to tell you what I can.

Speaking very generally I did get to witness a multitude of different activities. We transported a suspect to the receiving block (I felt like Dog, the bounty hunter, except without the swearing, smoking or mullet), went to an unattended death (now I know what Keao sees on a regular basis), searched for a dude suspected of being in a knife fight (complete with the blue lights, sirens, screeching brakes and a near tasering), checked on a few complaints, had a car towed, checked on a guy passed out in some bushes by Sorabol and pulled over a few people.

The highlight of the evening (aside from the aforementioned) was a DUI. We checked in on a DUI and I got to witness a few of the tests that they run to see if you are indeed a little intoxicated.

The first test they ran was to see if the guy’s eye twitch. Vinnie was trying to explain the scientific explation as to why your eyes twitch if you’re drunk but I was too busy trying to watch the action to completely understand it. Apparently he failed test number one.

The second test they make you do is walk in a straight line for nine paces going from your toe to your heel. The guy tried really hard, but he almost lost his balance twice and instead of keeping his feet together and walking toe-heel, toe-heel, he just basically took really small strides. Strike two.

The third test was standing on one foot and counting out your time out loud. Unfortunately for our guy he failed that one too. He only stood for nine seconds before he had to regain his balance. Then later he couldn’t remember how to count going from 18 to 22 and forgetting all the numbers in between.

One particularly funny moment came when the guy asks why there were so many cops for a simple DUI. He counted five cars and commented something like, “Isn’t this a bit much? Why are there five cop cars? Is this necessary?” Then, pointing at me he asked, “And who’s that fellow? Why is he standing there?”

I thought it was a valid question since I was just standing there watching what was going on. Vinnie, in his sympathetic manner just answered back, “Don’t worry about him, we’re not worried about him so you don’t need to be worried about him. In fact, if I were you I’d just worry about the situation you’re in now and not be worried about anyone else that’s standing here.”

Vinnie was right. He should have been more worried about the sitation he was in. I later found out that he failed his breathalyzer test so he did indeed have a little too much that night.

Overall, I must say, I do have a lot of respect for what Vinnie does. I’m glad I got to go out with him and see what he has to face on an everyday basis. I kept thinking, this is really dangerous. You don’t know what kind of crazies are out here, any one of them could be carrying a gun. So thank you HPD for keeping our streets safe. It’s a tough job and I’m glad that there are some good police officers out there.

When we’re not catching bad guys, Vinnie and I enjoy fishing in Alaska